Call Today:724-834-3559

Along with petrographic sample preparation, we also provide detailed petrographic examinations of rocks, minerals, building and construction materials, ceramic and architectural artifacts, and many other materials, which include traditional optical microscopical examinations, and associated techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, x-ray fluorescence, and other methods. The microscopy laboratory houses an impressive collection of antique to modern stereomicroscopes, metallurgical microscopes, polarizing (petrographic) microscope, fluorescent-light microscopes, and all with digital photomicrographic facilities. From the classical point count analysis to advanced image analysis - our microscopy laboratory is well-equipped to analyze your samples with unprecedented speed, accuracy, and details.

At the heart of our microscopy laboratory is a Cambridge Instruments' Camscan Series II scanning electron microscope, which is well-equipped with facilities for secondary electron, backscatter electron imaging, x-ray microanalysis (elemental and oxide analyses), elemental and phase mapping, line scan, manual and automated point and area analysis, and various other features controlled by 4Pi Revolution analytical software.

Shown below in the slideshow is our Siemens D 5000 X-ray diffraction unit with theta-two theta geometry, which is controlled by MDI Datascan software on a Windows XP platform. X-ray diffraction patterns of minerals are collected by MDI's Jade version 8.5 software, and identified by search/match module. Sample preparation for XRD is done by McCrone Micronizing Mill, which ground a sample to particles less than 10 micron in size.